


Shatter Me

by MadamMissy



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-12
Updated: 2020-04-13
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:15:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23613634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MadamMissy/pseuds/MadamMissy
Summary: What happens when Tobin drifts between Carol and Daryl just when he was starting to accept that his feelings towards her might not be limited by friendship? Will they completely drift apart or come out stronger?There will be one kiss shared between Carol and Tobin and innocent arm brushes but that's about it. Nothing more to expect from that really.Rated E for later chapters.
Relationships: Carol Peletier/Tobin (Walking Dead: Alexandria), Daryl Dixon/Carol Peletier
Comments: 1
Kudos: 11





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so this is my first twd fanfic ever and I am still a baby in this fandom (having started watching only at the end of last year), so please forgive any mistakes made in this. The kiss between Carol and Tobin in 06x12 has been moved forward to shortly after the attack of the Wolves!
> 
> Hope you enjoy! Xx

Carol crossed the distance between the front door and the porch with ease, letting her tired and exhausted body slide into place next to him. She hadn't known he would be there, never even suspected as much as a tiny bit of interest in having a conversation with her before he had suddenly sat there. 

They hadn't had much of a relationship before things went south when the Wolves had showed up but with everyone busy trying to organize the community after the departure of so many beloved members she didn't mind the company.

She offered him the cigarette that she had found in Daryl's laundry, which she took care of despite him telling her to leave his clothes be. She knew he didn't want her to take care of him but he never got angry enough to actually keep her from it, so she kept on collecting any discarded item of clothing he left lying around whenever she would take care of the laundry. 

The fall for her theft had been taken by Glenn, who had been Daryl's suspect, and was punished with deathly glares and silence for the following weeks after the big fight between them had to be stopped by Rick. 

She never told them that she had been the one to take the damn cigarette and in consideration of the events of the past days the thought of somebody losing their mind over a damn cigarette made her chuckle. Living in the community had made them soft and vulnerable. The time to be mad about losing one cigarette had long ended and the thought of how many people they had lost seemed to crush down on her. 

She had just been talking to some of them and then within a passing second their life had been taken in the blink of an eye. She couldn't keep thinking about them, had to forget and move on. They didn't get to be upset about every death anymore. 

He accepted it without a single word and took a slow drag from it. 

She looked at him but he didn't look at her, offering her no explanation as to why he was there. She took the silence gratefully and just sat there next to him, waiting until he was ready to talk. 

Maybe he didn't know why he was there, she thought. After all, she didn't know why she had come out to sit with him either.

"Word about tomorrow," he finally said, looking at her. She couldn't quite place the look on his face but she would say it was a mixture of pain and uncertainty. The community hadn't been used to loss as Carol and her group had been. 

It would take them a while longer to mourn the lost ones and the run for new supplies and medical equipment that Rick had announced for the following day hadn't eased any of the tension within the walls. 

"You going?" She asked, looking at him as he averted his gaze again, blowing a steady puff of smoke onto the ground. 

"No... You are," he said as matter of fact before silence filled up the space around them once again. The community had only seen the side of her that Carol had wanted them to see. They only knew the sweet and helpless Carol that loved to cook and take care of everything. 

The attack of the Wolves had changed that. It had forced her to leave her cover and protect what had become her home. The rest of them being too distraught to notice her made it possible for her to pass them without being recognized, so not all of them knew that side of her. The side that wasn't afraid to kill and didn't need anybody to show her how to use a weapon. 

But she knew that Tobin knew of what she was capable, though she didn't find anything negative in his face when he looked at her. For the first time in months, she had found someone who wasn't repulsed by the knowledge that she had killed people without even doing as much as blink. 

Even her own group had been repulsed, when she had killed two of their own, not understanding her motivations behind it but he seemed to get that she only did what was necessary to protect those she loved most. 

She, too, averted her eyes. 

"You can do things... that just terrify me," he said. 

He was calm, taking another drag and she was sure that he wasn't terrified of her. He was terrified because she seemed to get the things, that needed to get done, done, while he couldn't. He never could, which was part of the reason he had left his job to Abraham. Carol had heard about his failure to protect his people and she found a small bit of sympathy for the man next to her. After all, not everybody was suited for the life after.

"How," she said, her voice almost cracking. She needed to know. 

"How do you think I do those things?" 

He looked at her, finding insecurity in her eyes. She knew that a lot of people didn't understand how she could kill without mercy and seemingly so coldheartedly. She wanted him to show her that he didn't belong to those. She needed it more than she wanted it. 

"You're a mom," he offered her as if it would explain all the things going through both of their heads. It didn't. 

It only felt like a soft kick in Carol's guts as the thought of her long-gone daughter crossed her mind once again, leaving tears prickling in her eyes. No, she wouldn't let them take ahold of her. 

"I was," she said, not wanting to think about Sophia any more. Not when more people had been lost. She had been long done mourning the death of her beloved child. 

"You are." 

She was growing uneasy, he could tell. He searched for words but they all seemed to have fled his mind. Truth be told, he admired the woman next to him for the strength she possessed and that confidence in her every move. 

While he had a hard time grasping the concept of the Carol he had just gotten to know and combining it with the Carol he had thought to know, he knew that Carol didn't kill for fun or because it came easy to her. 

She killed because she had a family to protect and however hard it was to wrap his mind around that, he couldn't hate her for it. 

"It-it's not about the cookies or the smiles... It's the hard stuff... It's the scary stuff... It's how you can do it... It's strength," he said and she felt her heart soften at knowing he didn't lower her to the walls she had built around her emotions. It was reassuring after everything she had gone through with Morgan's icy glares whenever she had killed one of them. It felt good, too. 

"You're a mom to most people here," he said and finally looked at her again.

"To you, too?" She asked, her eyes slowly shifting to his lips. 

She didn't even know what made her feel that way. She only knew that it felt good to have someone treat her like he did, so she acted on it.

A long pause settled over them and he seemed to consider his choice of words carefully. 

"No," he said.

"You're something else to me," he added and his eyes, too, seemed to fly over her lips. 

A warmth spread through her and she leaned in to press her lips softly against his before she even knew what she was doing. It felt good to feel his lips move against hers.

When she broke the kiss, she didn't look at him and just pressed her forehead against his. She didn't know what she was doing. Her mind was telling her that deep down she knew that she shouldn't have done that but her heart longed for a loving touch. After all that she had been through she deserved it. 

"It's not tomorrow yet..." she said suggestively and waited for his response in anticipation and apprehension.


	2. Chapter 2

Daryl swung his crossbow back over his shoulder, slowly making his way back to the gates. He was close to the rest of his group in a physical manner but had never felt so far away from them. It was obvious to anyone that he didn't like being there, spending more time running from the walls that were supposed to make them feel safe and protected. 

But he didn't feel safe nor protected. He felt suppressed, as if the walls were taking something very important from them all, making them weaker and softer. He didn't like the luxury that came with the community, feeling oddly out of place. Even before the world had went to shit, had he hated the wealth these kinds of houses seemed to express and those assholes who lived in them. 

He didn't know a lot of people within the walls, the ones outside his group being cautious around him. Even his own group seemed to slowly drift apart, each of them finding more and more friends to fill their free time with.

Rick had grown fond of the woman, whose husband had been shot not too long ago by none other than Rick himself, Maggie seemed to grow closer to Deanna, if it was due to her work or actual fondness Daryl didn't know, hell even Carl had found someone to pass his time with. 

At first, he had spent most of his time with Carol, who played the happy housewife. But after some time, when Carol got more accepted by the women and they slowly started questioning her about her past, he started to distance himself from her and her newly found group of "friends". 

He couldn't stand the stories of how great of a guy she made Ed out to be and so he kept away in fear he might speak up about how much of an ass he really was. He didn't understand how she could speak so highly of him, act or not, when he had beaten her as terribly as he had. Just the thought of it made him want to go back in time just to get her out of his vicious fangs sooner and beat his ass to death. They all should have done something sooner. 

He never understood how someone could abuse someone as precious and loving as Carol. Ed should have been thankful to have her as wife but he had taken her for granted. After his death the two of them grew closer and both of them started opening up to each other, whatever there was between them growing into a strong bond. 

But the bond had slowly, but steadily weakened ever since they had come to Alexandria and the caring glances that once were reserved for him were now given to this guy, Tobin, as well. He didn't miss how fond Carol had grown to the man ever since the attack three weeks ago and he wasn't sure how to act around the two of them whenever they were close by, so he ran most of the times. 

He had been confused about the nature of his feelings for her for the longest time, never having felt anything like that. His life before hadn't been memorable and with no one to talk to about this kind of stuff, he tried to figure it out on his own. 

Despite his confusion about his own feelings, he didn't mistake the soft arm brushes or warm smiles between Carol and Tobin for what they were. They weren't born from an act of kindness or friendship. The way he looked at her was filled with admiration and he couldn't stand the sight of it. 

By the time he had begun to understand what was going on within his own pot of emotions, he fled the scene whenever she got too close to him, never being able to withstand the tension between them, knowing fully well that she would never want him to do the things he surely would have done if he had stayed. 

A woman like her, who had blossomed into the strong and confident woman that she was, wouldn't be interested in a man like him; someone, who was socially awkward and didn't know how to express what he was feeling very well. 

Not when they were out on the streets and surely not now, when she had an entire town at her disposal if the need to form a romantic relationship ever struck her. She wouldn't choose him, he thought. 

He kicked the small stones in front of him along the path and realized how much he missed talking to her, now that he was thinking of her. He had mostly kept to himself, going on recruiting missions with Aaron, something that had least given him purpose in this community, and whenever he wasn't needed, he spent almost all of his time out hunting to keep his mind busy.

But just thinking about her made him yearn for her attention, for her smile or just for her soft voice calling to him in relief like she always would when he came "home" to them after he had been away for a longer period of time. 

He reached the gates and nodded at the guy, who granted him entry without a word. He didn't really feel the need to form bonds with any of the members, so he kept the talking to bare minimum. They respected that and he was glad that he seemed to scare them enough to keep them away. 

His feet took him into the direction of the house they shared, suspecting to find her there. The water started running in his mouth as he thought of whatever food she would put on the table for dinner and maybe she would even cook something she knew he preferred. 

Despite the feeling of being misplaced, the thought of seeing Carol again after an entire week of being gone, made him feel like he was coming home to something. He fought his hardest to keep his smile hidden, not wanting to give anyone, Rick in particular, the opportunity to tease him with it. He didn't smile very often, so the leader of their group surely wouldn't miss out on an opportunity to tease him about it. 

His feet fastened their pace and with a new spring to his step he crossed the corner, his smile fading all on its own. He wasn't the only one making his way towards the house. His eyes watched as Tobin climbed the stairs of their porch and greeted Carol. 

His feet came to a halt as did Tobin's. The man seemed to talk to Carol and only seconds later she made room for him to join him on the bench. Something rose within him as he watched him kiss the side of her head lovingly. 

His heart dropped even further as he watched her place her head on his shoulder and with an angry growl he decided he couldn't keep watching them. He turned around and stomped back towards the gate, where he had come from.

The guard shot him a look of confusion as he marched past him but didn't dare to question Daryl's actions, especially as the rage was practically radiating off of him. 

"If anyone asks, I am out hunting. Don't expect to see me in a while," he growled over his shoulder, not once looking back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know... I know. We all hate Tobin right about now but what is happiness without a bit of pain first, right? Xx


End file.
